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City Arabesque

  • $85.00

Add Custom Frame

SHIPPING FOR FRAMES ONLY AVAILABLE WITHIN U.S.

Add Custom Frame

SHIPPING FOR FRAMES ONLY AVAILABLE WITHIN U.S.

Add Custom Frame

SHIPPING FOR FRAMES ONLY AVAILABLE WITHIN U.S.

Add Custom Frame

SHIPPING FOR FRAMES ONLY AVAILABLE WITHIN U.S.

Add Custom Frame

SHIPPING FOR FRAMES ONLY AVAILABLE WITHIN U.S.

Shot in 1938 as part of her Changing New York series for the Federal Art Project (FAP), City Arabesque epitomizes Berenice Abbott’s fascination with architecture and urban planning. Beyond being a creative pursuit, Changing New York was a sociological study of the built environment. Abbott believed that the habitats we construct say as much about humanity as our faces and bodies.

Abbott’s chronicles of New York focus on progress and the—at times alarming—speed at which the city was becoming engulfed in new architecture. City Arabesque peers out from the roof of 60 Wall Street Tower over a sprawling gray city without a soul in sight. The urban landscape has seemingly taken over, a phenomenon incited by the collective behavior of the city’s inhabitants but now flourishing with a mind of its own.

Abbott saw New York City through its architecture—quite literally, in the case of 1938’s City Arabesque, peering between architectural ornamentation at the densely packed buildings below. The overlapping arabesque lines of the barrier on the roof of 60 Wall Street Tower compose a curved framework, incongruous against the angular city grid below. This chaotic dissonance echoes the disorienting, vertigo-inducing angle from which Abbott shot City Arabesque. The result is a deeply absorbing feeling of flux. Abbott saw New York City for all its magnificent volatility, its perpetual growth and change, and the destruction and creation that came (and comes) with it. The Big Apple of Abbott’s eye prioritized expansion and evolution over all else, as exemplified by its constant architectural upheaval. Leave it to Abbott to convey this change in a way that was at once dizzying and exciting, frightening and beautiful ... Read more on the blog!

+ Limited-edition, exclusive to 20x200
+ Museum quality: archival inks, 100% cotton rag paper unless noted
+ Handcrafted custom-framing is available

Our quoted dimensions are for the size of paper containing the images, not the printed image itself. We do not alter the aspect ratio, nor do we crop or resize the artists’ originals. All of our prints have a minimum border of .5 inches to allow for framing.

Innova Fibaprint Warm Cotton Gloss

Edition Structure:
10"x8" | edition of 10
14"x11" | edition of 250
20"x16" | edition of 50
30"x24" | edition of 20
40"x30" | edition of 5